I've always been a ruminator on the subject of happiness. The last few years more than ever. You could say that three years ago I started almost from scratch - picking apart what it is that feeds me and choosing to discard what does not. In that space, I've had to focus on learning how to sit with what I've learned about what I want and need to live a good life. I've re-learned that happiness isn't static. And that it's fragile.

Happiness evolves and is protected by a series of decisions you make in everyday moments. Some of those decisions might be as small as what you decide to eat for breakfast or as large as your choice about who to wake up next to for the rest of your life. To protect myself and the happiness I've gained, I've had to learn to analyze my decision-making process. Why I lean toward one thing instead of another. I've had to learn to let myself be uncomfortable for longer stretches while the better answer becomes clear. I'm not all the way there but I'm getting better.

I collect some helpful visual tools on my Pinterest board, "Deep Thoughts" if you'd like to follow me there. Here's a list of "15 Things You Need to Give Up if You Want to Be Happy" that I pinned from LifeHack. It's popular with my Pinterest followers and seemed worth sharing here.